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Michelle Lordi
On her critically hailed 2015 album Drive, Michelle Lordi joined forces with pianist/arranger Orrin Evans, who produced the project and accompanied her on a program of emotionally taut ballads featuring an all star Philadelphia band. With her new album Dream a Little Dream, she delivers an intoxicating set of beloved standards with an illustrious cast of Philadelphia jazz veterans, including the storied tenor saxophonist Larry McKenna and guitarist Sonny Troy (who have played together since they met in South Philadelphia in Frankie Avalon's band in the late 1950s).
A singer blessed with a sumptuous voice, Michelle Lordi turns each musical encounter into an emotionally charged communion, creating an exhilarating circuit between her voice, her collaborators and the audience.
Whether she’s performing with Philadelphia or New York jazz legends, exploring experimental soundscapes, or delivering taut, mesmerizing pop ballads with pianist Orrin Evans, Lordi is looking for those moments of discovery when the unfolding musical narrative reveals something new and unexpected.
“An emotionally insightful performer with an arrestingly beautiful sound”-Andrew Gilbert, San Francisco Chronicle.
“Singer Michelle Lordi has released a notable CD in Drive…She is Julie London intimate, Straight forward, clear and appropriately dreamy. Even so she builds up tension…The backing is perfect across the board and Orrin Evans does some wonderful, almost haunting, reharmonizations on “I Fall In Love Too Easily”. A very pleasant and understated album.” -Robert Rusch/Cadence Magazine July 2015
“Lordi’s singing is reminiscent of Chet Baker’s minimalist style, allowing for exceptional rapport between her and her instrumentalists. She is rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the finest singers on the circuit today, and Drive is a further illustration of her remarkable talent.” -Victor L. Schermer/ All About Jazz March 2015
Michelle has performed at the Birchmere ( Alexandria, VA) BluJazz ( Akron, OH) Bop Stop (Cleveland,OH) Cliff Bell's ( Detroit, MI) Chris’ Jazz Café ( Philadelphia, PA) DazzleJazz (Denver, CO) Harlem Jazz (Barcelona, Spain) The Kimmel Center ( Philadelphia, PA) The Mann Music Center (Philadelphia, PA) Maureen's Jazz Cellar ( Nyack, NY) The Metropolitan Room (NYC) South Jazz Parlor ( Philadelphia, PA) SMOKE Jazz & Supper Club (NYC) and many other fine jazz festivals, art centers and musical venues.
Michelle is passionate about bringing generations of jazz fans and musicians together and has run one of Philadelphia’s best attended and successful weekly Jam Sessions at Vintage Bar & Grill in Abington, PA since September of 2014 with equal doses humor, professionalism and wonder.
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Michelle Lordi: Two Moons
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by Geno Thackara
The art of the jazz diva does not shy away from the dark and mysterious. From putting a spell on somebody to helplessly falling under that old black magic, the tradition always seems to include some small touch of witchery, and Michelle Lordi, for her part, does not let a modern-day sound obscure those roots. The mood of Two Moons sits somewhere between a late-night set in a small jazz club and a round of spooky stories around the campfire. ...
read moreMichelle Lordi: Only Love Can Break Your Heart
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by John Chacona
"Only Love Can Break Your Heart," a minor 1970 Neil Young hit, was ostensibly written for Graham Nash after the latter's split from Joni Mitchell (a claim Young later walked back), a breakup song then. It's a lilting waltz with a simple melody more sweet than sad. Cycling eight-bar verse and chorus sections without a bridge don't give a jazz singer a lot to work with, but rather than adding heft to thin material, the arrangement strips the song down ...
read moreC. Michael Bailey's Best Releases of 2020
![Read "C. Michael Bailey's Best Releases of 2020" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/coverart/large/f6e5b08e1cff51489a9796a25436289f.jpg)
by C. Michael Bailey
We are experiencing an existential fold in history, one where we do not even realize its gravity because it has been so cheapened by ourselves. The only thing that rises above all of this is art, and in particular, music. It is but grace that these artists provided us a gift we could never possibly warrant. Michelle Lordi Breaking Up With The Sound Cabinet of Wonder Productions Gemma Sherry
read moreMichelle Lordi: Career Evolution
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by R.J. DeLuke
Some artists are blessed to be born into situations where opportunities are at the ready. Education and training are easily obtainable. Maybe they have connections to the professional world, via their lineage or other friends. Even so, it's still up to them to produce and deal with the inevitable vagaries of their choice to pursue music as a career. For others, the process can be more gradual. The germ of being an artist is there, but it simmers and comes ...
read moreMichelle Lordi: Break Up With the Sound
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by C. Michael Bailey
Vocalist Michelle Lordi's house burned down at the end of 2017. That is a bracing life event from which one may find oneself at a brutally curious fork in the road. Lordi's Break Up With the Sound makes it seem that she blazed through Kubler Ross's five stages of loss and got to work on something so new, it smelled of white-hot creation. Lordi's modus operandi has been addressing the Great American Songbook, as evidenced by her densely competent Dream ...
read moreMichelle Lordi at Philadelphia Museum of Art
![Read "Michelle Lordi at Philadelphia Museum of Art" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/7ab31f25d6a85510387eb49534dc7520.jpg)
by Victor L. Schermer
Michelle Lordi Trio Friday Nights Philadelphia Museum of Art June 8, 2018 I've always appreciated Michelle Lordi's singing through her fine recordings, but I'd never heard her in person, so I seized this opportunity to hop over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to catch her show, especially because her trio included two of the finest musicians on the scene today: Jim Ridl on piano and Matthew Parrish on bass. Ridl ...
read moreMichelle Lordi: Dream a Little Dream
![Read "Dream a Little Dream" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/coverart/large/4a6149773004fb0554f3689010d73adb.jpg)
by Victor L. Schermer
Michelle Lordi graces the Philadelphia area with her singing, and her album releases and club dates in New York and elsewhere are gaining her wider recognition as she continues her regular local gigs. She sings clearly, straight ahead, and with panache. In this album, she brings together a septet of outstanding instrumentalists for a nostalgic set of standards from the American Songbook with small big band" arrangements by saxophonist Larry McKenna reminiscent of those which Bill Holman did during his ...
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